Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula
Australian Aboriginal Artist
Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula Born: c.1938 Died: 10/8/2001 Region: Western Desert Community Centre: Kintore Country: Yuwalki, Mitakutjirra and Putjya rockhole. Language: Pintupi / Western Desert Social Affiliations: Tjupurrula subsectionSubjects and Themes: Bush Fire, Emu, Snake, Woman, Mitakutjirra,
Straightening the Spears.
Commissions:
1979, Artist in Residence, Flinders University, with David Corby
Collections Held:
Artbank, Sydney.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
Berndt Museum of Anthropology,
University of Western Australia.
Darwin Supreme Court.
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
Sails Collection, Sails in the Desert Hotel, Yulara Complex, Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park.
South Australian Museum, Adelaide.
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.
Victorian Centre for Performing Arts, Melbourne.
Group Exhibitions:
1974, Anvil Art Gallery, Albury
1977, Nigerian Festival Exhibition, Lagos, Nigeria
1981, Anvil Art Gallery, Albury
1982, Brisbane Festival, Brisbane
1982, Georges Exhibition, Melbourne
1983, Mori Gallery, Sydney.
1983, Roar Studios, Melbourne.
1984, Koori Art '84, Art Space, Sydney.
1985, Dot and circle: a retrospective survey of the Aboriginal acrylic paintings of central Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne.
1985, The Face of the Centre: Papunya Tula Paintings
1985, The Second National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1986, Roar Studios, Melbourne.
1987, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
1987, The Fourth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1988, Papunya Tula Paintings, Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga
1988, The Fifth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1989, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
1989, Mythscapes, Aboriginal Art of the Desert, National Gallery of Victoria
1990, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
1990, National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome
1991, Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1991, Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia
1991, The Painted Dream: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from the Tim and Vivien Johnson Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery and Te Whare Taonga o Aoteroa National Art Gallery, New Zealand
1991, Canvas and Bark, South Australian Museum, Adelaide.
1992, The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1992/3, New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, touring USA and Australia
1992/93, The Heritage of Namatjira, touring exhibition, through Flinders University Art Museum.
1993, Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga,Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach,Qld
1993, Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
1993, The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1995, The Twelfth National Aboriginal Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Select Bibliography:
Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C)
Crocker, A. (ed.), 1981, Mr. Sandman Bring Me a Dream, Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, Alice Springs and Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd, Sydney. (C)
Chanin, E., 1990, (ed.), Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Roseville, NSW, Australia
Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales. (C)
Maughan, J., and Zimmer, J., (eds), 1986, Dot and Circle, a Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Paintings of Central Australia, exhib. cat., Communication Services Unit, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne. (C)
McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., 1994, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales.
Perkins H. 'Beyond the Year of Indigenous Peoples' in Art and Australia 1993 Vol 31 No 1 p 98-101.
Schulz, D., 1994, Lines from the Dreamtime, The Australian Way, Qantas in flight magazine, May 1994
Wallace, D., Desmond, M., Caruana, W., 1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Zurbrugg, N., 1991, Tim Johnson interviewed, Art and Australia quarterly, Vol 29, No. 1, Spring 1991 1990, Papunya Tula, exhib. cat., Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. (C) 1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), exhib. cat., Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. (C)
� Discovery Media, Documentation Pty Ltd, and the Australian
Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Details
Grew up in the area surrounding Haasts Bluff and went through the initiation ceremony to manhood in the late 50's, latter moving to Papunya where he worked as a labourer on construction work and in the kitchen. After his first wife died he moved to Kintore in 1983 where he has traditional land to the south-east.
He was Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists and one of their most highly acclaimed artists, regarded as amongst the most innovative and figurative of all of the Papunya Tula artists. He also paints in the classical, traditional Pintupi style of circles and connecting lines.
Turkey's speech and interview material is included in the documentary Market of Dreams' and also featured in East/West: Land in Papunya Paintings' at Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide, 1990.
He had already matured as a painter, and had produced many powerful works, before he saw his father's country for the first time, in 1981. He has recently said that from that time his paintings have been influenced by living in his country, which he had previously experienced only through ceremonial celebrations, stories and songs. (Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert. By Vivien Johnson)